Glennalicious: California is for teachers

January 23, 2006

California is for teachers

Our trip started badly. Our incoming flight was delayed because some person died and they had to stop in St. Louis.

So what exactly happens when you die in flight? Ignoring the weirdness of the living passenger who discovers the dead passenger, which would be quite awful. Depending on how smelly the death is, I would probably be fine sitting next to a dead person, as long as we could arrive on time at our destination and maybe I'd be able to get their snacks.

I'm more curious as to the whole death certificate thing. Who establishes the time of death, and more importantly, where is the place of death? Is the person's place of death just noted as "in the air," the origin, or the destination? I'm sure the same rules apply for births, but those are always messy and disgusting and I don't want to think of those.

Because of the dead guy, our flight was seriously delayed, so we didn’t arrive until midnight. I was worried, as the guy in India who worked for Travelocity told me that the car rental place closed at midnight, so I thought I was going to lose my convertible rental. Fortunately, the car rental was open 24 hours, so I got to have my convertible in LA. However, I then got a frantic call on the cell phone from the other teachers, as our hotel rooms had been bumped by our delay. The hotel solved the problem by relocating us back to a hotel near the airport, but this delayed us by a few more hours, plus we had to relocate at 7 a.m. to our original hotel.

It is now 2 a.m. in LA, 5 a.m. in NYC. I haven't eaten in 16 hours, so I decide to find food at Jack in the Box. Unfortunately for me, 3 other teachers also wanted food, so I became their taxi service. This would be okay, except sheep are easier to herd than tired teachers. I, in the infinite wisdom of 2 a.m. hunger pangs, decided to go for the Ciabatta Bacon Double Cheeseburger and the SEVEN count of Jalapeno Bites, which proved to be disastrous around 4 a.m.

The math conferences had a coffee bar, so I made it through the day. People thought I was in a religious fervor, I was merely highly wired on caffeine and sugar. GOD BLESS CAFFEINE.

Posted by G at January 23, 2006 07:43 AM

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Comments

I got so many questions. How did the person die? How did they announce this? Did they really make someone sit next to him for the rest of the flight? Good grief.

Posted by: Aaron at January 23, 2006 09:20 AM

You needed a herding dog to bark at those teachers and nip at their ankles, herding them into the car. Whenever I have to deal with teachers, I make sure to bring an "Australian Teachherd" dog with me. ;-)

Glad you survived the Ciabatta Bacon Double Cheeseburger and the jalapeno bites. I'd have spent the rest of the trip feeling rather unwell if I ate that in the wee hours of the morning!

Posted by: Jess at January 23, 2006 09:32 AM

OMG, that's horrible. If people are going to die, they ought to be considerate of other people's schedules.

Posted by: Andy at January 23, 2006 02:54 PM

It was the incoming flight that we were waiting to board, so I just know that they made an emergency landing in St. Louis.

They didn't make anyone sit next to them, but I bet I could have done it, as long as there wasn't too much flatulence.

Posted by: glenn at January 23, 2006 08:21 PM

"...as long as there wasn't too much flatulence."

LOL! I just got this image of you being forced to sit next to Grandmama from "Duckman".

Posted by: Lee at January 23, 2006 10:25 PM

HILARIOUS POST. Kudos.

Posted by: Spencer at January 24, 2006 10:04 PM